More that than this

I’ll add that to be compelling visually, art must also be compelling conceptually. To succeed, all art must be conceptual, just as it must address formally its reason for being considered visual art. . . . The test is in how well the conceptual and the formal elements are synthesized—to the point that the ultimate experience of the art is about neither, but something else entirely.

Edward St Aubyn

“What was the thread that held together the scattered beads of experience if not the pressure of interpretation?” Patrick Melrose in Some Hope